In a statement released yesterday, the People Network for Elections in Thailand (P-Net) said vote-buying was prevalent in many areas of the country, especially the North, Northeast and Central regions. This apparently happened a few nights before the ballot.

P-Net blamed the problem on the Election Commission (EC), saying the agency had taken no measures to prevent or suppress election fraud. The EC also failed to take decisive and prompt action to discourage such violations of the electoral law, P-Net said in a statement.

Certain parties and their candidates openly relied on state officials and government authority to take advantage over their competitors, the watchdog added.

“P-Net believes this election was not sufficiently free or fair. A free and fair election is necessary to reform and change Thailand,” the statement said.

However, it admitted that Sunday’s election did show some improvements in terms of political parties compared to previous polls, with contesting parties presenting constructive policy platforms.

As for the EC, the watchdog said that judging from the agency’s performance in the seven months ahead of the national vote, commissioners clearly lacked experience and ability to organise a general election efficiently.

‘EC did not use its authority’

“Despite the authority given to them by law, the EC failed to fully make use of this power. Also, they were not able to spend the increased budget carefully,” P-Net said.

It also slammed the EC for not being prepared enough to properly organise advance voting for Thais living overseas. It pointed to the fact that many ballots cast overseas were not delivered on time for vote counting, which caused them to be considered invalid.

Moreover, P-Net said, election officials dispatched at polling stations were “less precise and strict” in complying with relevant rules and regulations, compared to election officials in previous polls. The group blamed this on the lack of preparation and training.

P-Net also noted that unlike in previous polls, Sunday’s election had no volunteer observers at polling stations, which it said made it easy for possible fraud. “In many cases, it was found that state authorities were trying to influence voters,” it said.

The monitor also said the voter turnout was a lot lower than expected, which it blamed on insufficient public relations on the EC’s part.

BANGKOK’S election results have been a complete surprise, especially the dismal performance of the Democrat Party who suffered a bitter defeat in their electoral stronghold.

The March 24 general election offered 30 constituency-based MPs for Bangkok. Political debutants Phalang Pracharat Party got 13 seats, rising-star Future Forward Party got eight while Democrats’ arch-rivals, Pheu Thai Party, picked up nine.

To the utter shock of observers, none of the Democrat MP candidates won in the capital, after ruling the capital for more than a decade.

In the 2011 election, the Democrat Party had walked away with 23 of the 33 MP seats in Bangkok.

The Democrat Party was also the winner in the capital’s electoral races in 2007.

The victories the Democrats had scored in Bangkok equipped them with political weaponry for their battles against the so-called Thaksin regime for years.

But the March 24 election has proved that Bangkok voters can be fickle.

Former Bangkok MPs who ran under the Democrat banner, including ML Apimongkol Sonakul and Akanat Promphan, lost their races in their own constituencies despite the fact that they had been favourites there for so long.

New Democrats such as Parit “Itim” Wacharasindhu, a prominent nephew of outgoing Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, also bit the dust, belying expectations that they would be the future of the party.

The number of votes Democrat MP candidates got ranged between 6,000 and 18,000 – a massive fall from their dominance of the capital’s politics for years.

The Pheu Thai Party, meanwhile, has still got pretty much the same number of MP seats as in the 2011 election. Eight years ago, Pheu Thai had got 10 out of 33 MP seats in Bangkok. This time, it got nine out of the capital’s 30 MP seats. Wan Yubamrung, a son of seasoned politician Chalerm Yubamrung, won a seat for the Pheu Thai.

Analysts believe that most voters who used to support the Democrats must have cast their ballots for the Phalang Pracharat and Future Forward parties, who both made their electoral debuts this time.

It should be noted that many of the Phalang Pracharat candidates in Bangkok constituencies were former Bangkok councillors – some previously elected under the Democrat banner and some were earlier affiliated with the Pheu Thai. Interestingly, some Phalang Pracharat candidates were new faces but still managed to win. Among them were Pada Vorakanon, Patcharin Samsiripong and Krichanont Iyapunya.

Future Forward candidates were all new faces and looked like just ordinary people before they contested the latest general election.

Among them were Tossaporn Thongsiri, Natcha Boonchai-insawas, and Jirawat Aranyakanont.

Even more surprising is the fact that in addition to the number of MP seats it bagged, Future Forward got the highest number of votes in the capital.

According to the Election Commission (EC), with 94 per cent of ballots counted, the Future Forward Party received 757,367 votes in Bangkok. Phalang Pracharat came second, securing 747,908 votes while Pheu Thai Party was third, receiving 574,694 votes.

The Democrat Party came a poor fourth with 445,614 votes.

The Future Forward Party proved its appeal to young voters, especially with more than 7 million first-time voters in the March 24 election.

The political tides in Bangkok may be in favour of the Future Forward Party and the Phalang Pracharat Party for now. But history shows this is not the end of the story.

Thai Citizen and Palang Dharma parties used to be hugely popular in Bangkok, but they both fell out with Bangkok voters and finally faded from the political scene.

But the Democrat Party, whose then-new face Abhisit was the only Democrat MP in Bangkok in the 1996 election, managed to impress Bangkok voters about a decade later.

Only time will tell who Bangkok residents will vote for next time.

Though accepting of their defeat, the Commoners Party and Green Party said yesterday that they would continue working on wooing voters for the next election.

The two parties, both newcomers, failed a single MP seat. As of yesterday afternoon, the Green Party, which focuses on forest and land issues, had registered 20,753 votes, while the Commoners Party, which is supported by local environmentalists, only secured 4,646 votes.

‘Still new to politics’

Commoners Party leader Lertsak Kumkongsak said the failure was not unexpected because his party is still new to the political landscape, and not many people know about it.

“Actually, our score is rather surprising, because we got votes from people outside the areas where we campaigned, which shows that people understand and agree with our principle to fight for democracy, human rights and social justice from the bottom up,” Lertsak said.

He revealed that even though Commoners Party did not win a single MP seat, it still gained major votes in areas that are affected by environmental and social issues such as communities around Thung Kham gold mine in Loei’s Wang Saphung district.

“This election has taught us that we still have problems accessing people outside our campaign areas, so from now on we will have to make our presence felt among the wider public so that more people understand what we are trying to achieve,” he said.

“This is also our first step toward removing a dictatorship. Even though the pro-junta party may have the upper hand in this election, pro-democracy parties have also won significant votes, and we intend to join them in the next election.”

He added his party would continue seeking new members to reach the goal of 5,000 by the end of 2019, and build a wider public support base. The party members also plan to work at the local level to help combat social and environmental problems for residents and build a bastion for the next election.

Green Party leader Phongsa Choonaem put his party’s failure to win a seat down to similar problems as well as not having a support base.

“Our not winning a single seat was expected. Similar parties in other countries do not perform well in their first election,” Phongsa said.

Forest party gains seat

He added that winning more than 20,000 votes was a good start, because it showed that many voters cared about the environment and want to push environmental policies in mainstream politics.

“It’s a humble start, but like a tree we will slowly grow and finally thrive in mainstream politics,” he said.

Along with the Commoners and Greens, another small party that participated in the elections was the Thai Forest Land Reclamation Party.

As per the unofficial final tally yesterday, it had won 122,494 votes and gained one party-list MP seat in Parliament.

According to election laws, ballot papers cast in advance voting overseas will be deemed invalid if they are not delivered to their intended polling stations for counting before the general election closes at 5pm.

Sumeth said his office had informed the Foreign Ministry in Bangkok that the ballots, contained in a diplomatic pouch, would arrive at the THAI cargo centre at 8.50pm on Saturday and that the ministry could send officials to pick them up from 10pm to 10.30pm.

“However, our staff members were informed that the officials could not come to claim them that night. They said they would come in the morning. They came the next day [election day] and got them at 7.30pm,” he explained.

THAI, the national carrier, is the latest agency coming out to defend its part in shipping the ballots from New Zealand to Thailand.

The Thai Embassy in Wellington, which had organised the New Zealand advance voting for the election in early March, issued a statement detailing its procedures in shipping the ballots, in order to show that it had held the advance voting according to the law and shipped them out of New Zealand so that they arrived in Thailand in good time.

“The shipping problems are beyond our control,” the statement read.

The agencies’ comments are in light of the Election Commission stating that the ballots from New Zealand arrived late, after the counting had started, which could render them void.

The electoral agency will meet on Tuesday to discuss the problem.

It is also being roasted for the confusing and contradicting results released through its Rapid Report system on Sunday night.

The vote tally showing the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat beating former coalition leader Pheu Thai has raised many eyebrows, and made people raise queries over issues such as the mysterious surplus votes that far exceeded the turnout in many constituencies and the 2 million “spoiled” votes.

People were further frustrated by the agency’s decision to postpone the announcement of the initial poll results to Monday, backtracking on its earlier promise to complete 95 per cent of vote counting by Sunday evening.

The public was also not amused when EC president Ittiporn Boonpracong said he could not tell how many voters had turned up because he did not have a “calculator” at his disposal at the time.

The hashtags trending on Twitter with over 1.4 million tweets were “EC Busted” and “Election Fraud 2019”.

Some 400,000 signatures were also collected for a change.orgpetition to have the election commissioners removed for failing to hold a free and fair election.

Meanwhile, the EC puts all this criticism down to misunderstanding, claiming that there were human errors in the unofficial poll results issued via its Rapid Report system.

As for areas where the turnout and tally did not add up, the EC secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma blamed it on officials entering incorrect numbers in the system.

He said official reports from all constituencies will be handed over to the EC on Tuesday and the data will be made available by Friday, though official results will only be released within May 9.

As for media speculation on the number of seats won by each party, Jarungvith warned that these figures might not match the reality.

He said seat allocations could not be finalised until the EC has cleared all irregularities and complaints, and held by-elections where necessary.

“The party-list MPs can change all the time until then,” Jarungvith said.

As for the ballots from advance voting in New Zealand, which missed yesterday’s counting, Jarungvith said EC has yet to make a decision on this matter. The ballots were delivered to the EC on Monday.